


rush hour

by drilbur (orphan_account)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Amazing Race Fusion, Competition, M/M, Reality TV, Travel, follows four couples !!, more fluffy than you think!, set in south india
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/drilbur
Summary: it's the second last leg of the amazing race season 35 and four very competitive teams remain. which teams will manage to traverse through the streets of india to reach the finish line and move on to the final leg? stay tuned to find out!
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Liu Yang Yang, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin, Mark Lee/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	rush hour

**Author's Note:**

> [sighs.] a super niche au, i'm very sorry lol. there are some tamil terminologies that i used here:
> 
> \- kolam: it's a tradition practice of drawing colorful patterns on the ground and in front of homes and during festivals. it's said to keep away evil spirits. looks like [this](https://img.inextlive.com/inext/1112021/pongal-kolam-designs-2021.jpg).  
> \- vanakkam: greetings, or to say welcome. 
> 
> please enjoy :D

to be honest, yangyang really didn’t picture himself out and about on a hot sunday afternoon, doing things that he didn’t actually know even existed in the first place. this sunday was once again, spectacularly arranged for by the crew on their trip to madurai, india which was a direct and stark contrast to where they were last sunday—northern vietnam where they had to run through colorful markets to find the correct ingredients to make bánh cuốn for the local elderly people who were to approve of their distasteful cooking skills, unfortunately. northern vietnam saw some snow capped hills and a generally cool weather and running around didn’t seem like much but in madurai, everything was an enormous task—from the language to finding a good breakfast lounge.

renjun being the most competitive he has been in years, studied some tamil words online while on the plane, which included asking how to find the toilets and asking how much the price was for the souvenirs he planned on buying. lucas and mark also ended up taking the same flight as theirs, their start times being only half an hour apart. the race to finishing the roadblock at east veli street amidst a big pedestrian crowd wasn’t exactly easy with jaemin and donghyuck tailing closely behind them in their own auto-rickshaw with their equally competitive auto-rickshaw driver who somehow very clearly understood what they were going for. may was a hellish month in india, yangyang had finally learned and he was going to add that to his existing pool of geographical knowledge.

“okay, fuck! detour, detour! baby, listen!” renjun was cute most of the time except when he was directly yelling into yangyang’s face, shoving the yellow pamphlet into his chest. “doyoung and taeyong are still stuck trying to find the last route marker and we have to leave before jaemin and his stupid husband catch up, do you understand?” renjun whisper-yells and all yangyang can think about is the distaste at the back of his mouth and the breakfast that’s threatening to spill over. “renjun baby, i feel sick, give me a second.” he heaves and renjun clicks his tongue in annoyance.

“yangie darling, we don’t have time for that. c’mon, you’ll feel better once we get going!” renjun pulls him by the arm and yangyang stays still as the glaring sun drills through his head and the heat makes him feel dizzy. their cameraman is equally confused as to why renjun must hurry at all times, they’re already in the first place by a long shot and pausing to rest for a second wouldn’t actually hurt them.

“okay fine, here. have some cold water and then i’m going to tell you something that’s gonna make you go _woo!_ ” renjun fishes out a yellow thermos flask from the backpack and hands it over to yangyang who eyes him suspiciously. he drinks half the bottle in one go, to which he earns a very bad stink eye from renjun who simply just clicks his tongue in annoyance and waits for yangyang to finish. “what did you want to say, junnie?” renjun looks back at the cameraman to signal him to turn the camera away for a moment to which he just clicks his tongue and looks away, pointing his camera towards the gopurams of the meenakshi amman temple for some extra footage. renjun pulls yangyang closer by his t-shirt and tiptoes a bit to whisper into his ear, in between all the bustle and noise around them.

“after we get back to the hotel, i’ll let you fuck me. for however long you want. promise.” yangyang’s eyes widen once he pulls back and his lips jump up in pure ecstasy. this was a deal he couldn’t possibly pass up, especially after being the one to propose the idea of fucking in every city they make it to. getting to fuck _the_ elusive renjun would simply be a bonus.

“however long?” yangyang raises an eyebrow.

“however long.”

“however kinky?” and now renjun has lowered himself into a trap.

“fine. however kinky. fuck you.”

“we’re in the vicinity of a religious place, junnie! how scandalous.”

“does that work for you?” renjun grabs hold of yangyang’s hand and gives him his best attempt at puppy eyes. “that fucking works. let’s get outta here, get an auto.” yangyang loved mirroring the same devilish smile that renjun always has on.

* * *

“once i see the despair of a loss on renjun’s face, i will finally rest in peace.” donghyuck mutters under his breath with jaemin tightly holding his hand, head resting on his shoulder. “why do you even hate them so much, hyuckie? they haven’t even done anyth—” jaemin begins.

“jaem, why can’t you see how annoying renjun and his stupid skater boy fiancé are? all they care about is laughing at the other teams’ failures and misdirecting everyone else whenever they’re done with that. like what kind of shitty human beings are they? and even the fucking universe loves them for some reason, always allowing them to come in first and do their annoying screaming ritual. it’s just beyond me how anyone would even _like_ them.” jaemin only chuckles under his breath and holds onto donghyuck’s shoulder even tighter.

to be honest, to jaemin, the race doesn’t even matter as much as rekindling his relationship with donghyuck. jaemin would even go as far as saying he only took the opportunity to go with him because he felt their marriage was falling apart at the seams and this seemed like the only working solution to all of it. that is until he remembered how competitive his husband could get. the last time he saw so much fire in donghyuck’s eyes and mouth was back when they argued about whom their case should go to, in case they lost it. simply suggesting that they forfeit the representation and move onto a more important case the firm had assigned to them, made donghyuck absolutely lose it and win the case just to prove a point to jaemin.

“put this hat on, it’ll protect your cute little head from the heat.” no, jaemin wasn’t doing any of this for the camera. even if just one person starts rooting for the betterment of their relationship through this, it would be an added tip for sure. they were on their way to a place called thousand pillar hall which was definitely a religious destination from what he read on a google search. the rickshaw travelled faster than they expected as they kept google maps open at all times.

“oh look, lucas just texted saying they just reached the place and those bastards were there before them.” donghyuck announces and jaemin stares at his phone in confusion.

“man, i really wish we got a u-turn pass again. this time we’d use it correctly on renjun’s team.” jaemin sympathizes. donghyuck nods in agreement and wraps his hand around jaemin’s—unprompted, tight, and unrelenting, sending shock waves through jaemin’s body. maybe donghyuck belongs here—under the sun with his skin glowing with rivulets of sweat running down his forehead as he holds jaemin’s hand in the same reassuring way that he did at the altar all those years ago.

three minutes away from the place, donghyuck gets a message from lucas telling him that the detour is a hard one and that they’ll need ample time to complete it. he’s tempted to ask how much progress renjun and yangyang have made on the task but he bites his tongue and puts his phone away, tapping his feet in anxiety.

“it’ll be fine, hyuckie. i bet they’re still struggling to understand the instructions from their instructor. it’s the memorization part that’s hard and i think we’re pretty good at that, right?” donghyuck wordlessly nods, letting out a heavy sigh.

“i just really want to win this leg, jaem.” donghyuck says, tired. he lolls his head on top of jaemin’s on his shoulder and jaemin responds by holding his hand tighter and bringing them up to his lips.

“i know, babe. and i’m gonna make sure we win this shit.” it’s always nice to see the sun smile back at him, jaemin decides.

* * *

“did you draw it properly, xuxi? we get limited chances on this one because we can’t keep rubbing off the colors!” the look on lucas’ face is something that mark will remember forever. he slaps his forehead and gets to work with whatever they have on hand, which on close inspection is just a bunch of dots and some swirls and a random flower which lucas had concocted from joining the dots. the instructions were pretty simple, now that they’ve all gotten used to how the show works—memorize the kolam’s simple pattern, fill up the drawing using the right color of kolam powder and show it back to the instructor. lucas had stepped up to the challenge and gone around to memorize it for the both of them but came back with whatever abomination he handed over to mark, who was now squatting down with different bowls of colored kolam powder between his knees.

mark would’ve imagined doing a lot of things with lucas, thanks to their twitch channel where they generally get paid to do insane parkour challenges and trick shots. he would’ve imagined getting paid thirty dollars to do a backflip off of a government building, or even getting paid a hundred dollars to watch him kiss lucas (their shippers were rabid, and he would do it because the pay’s good and also because he has a teeny tiny bro crush on lucas) but he would’ve never imagined being so goddamn close to winning a million dollars all at once and having lucas fuck it up just a bit with the flick of his hand.

the instructor seems unbothered as she smiles at their pathetic attempts at recreating a very important cultural practice in tamil nadu, but she cheers them on nonetheless. mark looks around in between the seemingly unending pillars that loom above them, all intricately carved and preserved for more than five hundred years, as he catches sight of doyoung and taeyong finally arriving at the entrance, out of breath and panting. doyoung is loud when he tells taeyong to immediately get to memorizing the pattern they needed to draw and it earns a few pointed eyes from the others at the hall. lucas scampers off towards donghyuck and jaemin’s attempt at recreating the kolam from memory and observes it for a few seconds before running back to mark and redrawing the sketch they had from before.

“markie, i got it! this is it, go go go!” mark takes a good long look at the drawing and the color schemes and gets to work, dipping his fingers into the rice flour mixture and drawing a few symmetrical dots.

a few minutes pass and mark is doing considerably better than what he expected from himself, partially because lucas is the best hype man he can ever hope for and that included him hyping up the other teams on the challenge too. yangyang and renjun definitely seem to appreciate it, though.

“xuxi! focus on us, please! did i get the pattern right?” lucas looks back and forth between his sketch and the one mark’s drawn on the cold, stone slabs of the floor and simply nods. “it’s good, keep going, mark!” he then kneels down closer and takes a better look before whispering to mark, “so, red in the flower, blue for the edges and green on the centerpiece. and um, alternate between yellow and red for the patterns. that’s it, i think.” mark wears a proud smile after lucas tells him that and lets his fingernails collect red dust next.

half an hour passes and the camera crew are much more nimble now, shifting between the four teams to get all their disastrous attempts under the lens and so far, doyoung and taeyong are much behind than the rest of them since they had multiple attempts at just getting the dots right, let alone the colors. the instructor looks bored out of her mind now, but a crowd has gathered to watch them do their best at getting the kolam right and by far, renjun and yangyang are the fastest to do so and mark will pretend renjun’s annoyed yelling didn’t play any major part in it.

“listen, don’t look anywhere else. we’re very close, we can finish this, okay? chill man! now, blue first, and then green in the centre,” lucas grabs hold of mark’s hand in between in his giant one and directs him to let loose of the kolam powder so loosely threatening to flow through his fingers. mark stares bewilderedly at the sheer size of lucas’ hand engulfing his own and suppresses a smile to himself. he doesn’t know what this feeling is but it makes him feel like he should take a cold water bath once they get back to their hotel. it feels nice.

renjun and yangyang get their approval from the instructor and the crowd erupts in cheers, but mark drowns all of it out and focuses on lucas, just the way he asked. maybe, he has to update his definition for what a teeny tiny bro crush is.

* * *

“fucking finally! is it the pitstop next?” taeyong wonders what they’d be without the show’s editors and their exceptional skills at editing out every moment that doyoung’s sworn on camera. the amazing race is supposed to be a family friendly show after all, especially with their seven year old daughter suvi, watching them from home with her grandparents, but doyoung pays no mind. the yellow envelope is torn open in a second and the both of them are faced with yet another set of directions towards the final stretch of the leg. the other teams had already left, with lucas and mark leaving for the destination barely fifteen minutes ago, and this seemed to drive doyoung to the edge of madness.

sometimes, taeyong liked to think about where it went wrong the last time around and how the both of them are managing to fix it on their second chance. he wouldn’t forget the image of suvi’s smile when doyoung told her that taeyong was going to come back home again to be her dad and live together with them, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. doyoung’s been trying really hard to make it work for all of them involved and it drives taeyong to insanity thinking about how much they’ve both sacrificed in life, just to end up back together again—like a chewing gum with an unending flavor profile. when doyoung proposed that they’d win a million dollars just by putting taeyong’s trust in him, how could he object? and now here they are, hand in hand, rummaging through narrow and busy streets to find an empty rickshaw to take them to a place they couldn’t quite pronounce.

“hyung, i don’t think we’ll find any rickshaws here, we’ll have to make it by foot. let’s ask around how far this place is from here, c’mon.” taeyong agrees without a protest and he gets dragged around a nearby clothes shop while doyoung asks in english about the place and shows the cashier the booklet they received. the man exclaims when he sees the picture of the location and explains that it’ll take about fifteen minutes to go there on foot and that’s enough to have taeyong dragging doyoung out of the store and onto the street again, wading through the crowd.

“okay doie, i have maps on and we’re gonna have to be super careful with the directions if we wanna have a chance at beating lucas and mark,” and it’s easy after that because doyoung is as determined to finish the leg, come what may. doyoung does feel bad that their competition is lucas and mark rather than donghyuck and jaemin—he’s still carrying a vendetta over their u-turn pass during the fourth leg and he really wanted to repay the favor with twice as much welcome. but alas, their fate now laid in the hands of traffic and crowds on a sunday. after making some important turns and crossing some streets, doyoung sees a gigantic structure that resembles a palace, and they both run on autopilot after that.

“phil! phil, we made it! we’re here,” both doyoung and taeyong heave with their legs firmly planted on the world map carpet laid out before him and phil smiles with pride, teeth and all.

“vanakkam! welcome to madurai, the city of temples.” doyoung and taeyong follow suit folding their hands, mimicking the host representative of the city.

“welcome to thirumalai nayakar mahal, doyoung and taeyong. it’s been a long day, hasn’t it? i’m just really glad you’re both here,” phil begins. taeyong looks nervously into doyoung’s eyes and reaches out to hold his hand out of force of habit.

“doyoung and taeyong, you are the last team to arrive at the pitstop and i’m sorry to say that you have been eliminated from the race.” phil continues but taeyong and doyoung chuckle softly, still holding hands. taeyong leans in to press a small kiss to the corner of doyoung’s sweat glistened cheek and says, “suvi’s gonna be so proud of us, we made it so far.” doyoung smiles to himself and then back at phil. “we’re super happy to have made it this far, phil. it was honestly just a great time all over, and i’d do it again and again with him, no questions asked.” doyoung presses a lingering kiss to the side of taeyong’s head and pulls him closer towards himself.

taeyong pauses to ask who arrived first but the cameras stop filming and phil moves away after congratulating them on their progress. in the corner of his eyes, he can see yangyang and renjun sharing a kiss behind one of the pillars in the palace, yellow envelope dangling from renjun's fingers as yangyang pressed him backwards and taeyong can assume what went on. maybe, he’ll just go home and watch this episode in their house, with their suvi, on their couch, with his doyoung pressed up beside him. it sounds like a plan.

**Author's Note:**

> [here](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/64/f5/22/64f522e4d71e359c9946cb9528c909ec.jpg) [are](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/60/7c/80607c550dfeb3b4b3084faa60066c7a.jpg) [some](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/85/38/08/853808e5350589670b631a0d45f4e80d.jpg) pictures of the places they visited!
> 
> thanks to nina for looking this over! tamil community i hope you guys accept my humble offering ;__; leave a kudos/comment if you liked it <3
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/emberhit)


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